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I wish they had some details about his helmet. I for one would like to know what kind of helmet didn't protect him from a fatal head injury in a crash that didn't involve a motor vehicle or a fall from a great height. Since they say he was an experienced rider I would like to think that the helmet fit him well, was buckled and was within its useful lifetime ... but you never know.

I expect a helmet to protect me against what the CPSC says it has to protect me against, an unpropelled fall from bicycle height. I expect other people's helmets to do the same for them.

I understand that people get propelled by motor vehicles in crashes, that they fall down ravines, that they reach speeds on sprints and descents that exceed the CPSC standards. I understand that people die of neck injuries and internal injuries and blood loss. From what this story said, none of this applied.

I'm at peace with my mortality and I don't expect life to be free of risk. And I certainly don't use my helmet and other safety gear (bici or moto) as an excuse to take extra risks. But I also expect that if a product is required by law to meet certain standards that can mean the difference between walking away from a wreck vs. death or worse, that it will actually meet those standards.

So sad to read this. I had friends riding RAGBRAI, and I'm sure they have all been affected by this.

Originally Posted by OakLeaf

But I also expect that if a product is required by law to meet certain standards that can mean the difference between walking away from a wreck vs. death or worse, that it will actually meet those standards.

Check the standards. Most of these helmets are only rated for impact at or less than 12 mph...

If you can point to where it says a bicycle helmet must protect a cyclist from "an unpropelled fall from bicycle height", regardless of any other other real-world circumstance (speed that the cyclist is traveling at the time of the fall, the road gradient, road condition, age and condition of the rider's helmet, and so forth), have at.

1.2 m to a curbstone and 2 m to a flat anvil are about the height someone's head would be when riding a bicycle.

The impact attenuation standards (peak acceleration) are based on what's likely to cause a brain injury.

Age and condition of the helmet are things I addressed in my first post. I hope that an experienced rider would have been replacing his helmet periodically and whenever it took damage, but I'm aware that there are people who don't. This is part of what I'd like to know.

Unless something happens to translate your forward momentum into vertical momentum - which I know from personal experience can happen, but again nothing like that was mentioned in this story - your forward velocity is irrelevant to a sideways fall. It's relevant if you hit something head-on, like a car (even a parked car) or a tree.

When I fell on my head in 1987 - wearing a pre-CPSC Snell helmet - it was at a considerably greater peak acceleration, because I stuck a pedal in a corner and it did translate my forward momentum into vertical velocity, so that I turned upside down and fell on my head from about three meters, from what I'm told. I was knocked cold, so it wasn't that I didn't have any brain injury, and I'm well aware that it was dumb luck that I didn't break my neck. But I was only knocked cold, and have had no noticeable long-term symptoms. It seems like your helmet protected you from a similar impact.

If a helmet I buy today doesn't offer the same protection, something's not right.

ETA:

I'm not saying the CPSC standards are worthless and I'm not saying they're perfect, either. I'm saying a helmet that met the standards should have protected this guy better than it actually did, unless there's something the story isn't telling us. I'm well aware that without independent verification, many helmets that have the CPSC sticker, including name-brand helmets, don't actually meet the standards, as (for instance) the well-publicized Consumer Reports tests found. That's what concerns me. The lack of independent verification, and the fact that almost no helmet manufacturers in the USA shell out for a Snell sticker any more, now that they're all required to carry the CPSC sticker.